Alyson Shane

Crowdfunding Crash Course: Paul Raphaelson - Sweet Ruin: The Brooklyn Domino Sugar Refinery

August 12, 2015

Paul Rahpaelson is an American artist best known for urban landscape photography. His most recent project is Sweet Ruin: The Brooklyn Domino Sugar Refinery, a photography book about the history of the Brooklyn Domino Sugary Refinery, which he funded through Kickstarter.

Can you briefly describe Sweet Ruin: The Brooklyn Domino Sugar Refinery?

Sweet Ruin: The Brooklyn Domino Sugar Refinery is a photography book about the Domino Sugar Refinery. The factory was an icon in Brooklyn and was the biggest sugar factory in the world for much of the last 150 years. I was the last photographer given access to this mind-blowing place before its demolition.

Why did you feel that the crowdfunding model was the best way to promote it?

It’s how art books get made today. Because crowdfunding exists, publishers see it as a way to offload costs and risks. They now expect you to show up not just with a great project, but with pre-sales and cash.

Why and how did you choose Kickstarter over other crowdfunding options available?

My editor was strongly anti-Kickstarter, based on the experiences of her previous clients. The all-or-nothing model killed them. So I looked at Indiegogo and Hatch Fund. The former was just a zoo of half-baked projects. The latter was tightly curated, and offered a lot of coaching and assistance, but didn’t seem to have much marketing reach. I didn’t see many projects making more than a few thousand dollars.

So I went back to Kickstarter. It turns out they have people who will coach you if you seek them out. I got advice that was fantastically helpful.

How big was your budget before you launched your crowdfunding campaign?

My real budget was $36,000, but that seemed impossible, so I decided to crowdfund just the basics (editing, writers’ fees, graphic design, historical pictures, etc..). I’d worry about the publication costs later, and try to get a grant. So I asked for $7,400.

How far along was your project before you felt ready to launch a crowdfunding campaign? In hindsight, would you have preferred to be farther along, or to have crowdfunded earlier?

All the photography and the first round of editing was done. Editing my project video took forever because I didn’t know what I was doing, and wanted it to be good. So it took a lot of learning and procrastination.

Can you explain how you prepared for and managed your campaign?

Well, the video was the big time suck. Getting that done was the hard part. Then I created a project page in Facebook, and started promoting it. This went on for a couple of months. I was advised to get 1000 likes, but never got much past 300. This made me nervous—if I can’t get people to click a button, how will i get them to send money? Eventually I just had to go for it and launch and hope for the best.

What tools did you use to market your campaign? Do you feel like you did so successfully, and if not, what could you have done differently?

I tried a small Facebook ad. That was worthless. Beyond that, I just promoted the page to my friends and family, fellow photographers, people I’d sold prints to, people on my photo mailing list, press and blogs, industrial history groups … anyone who might be interested. I posted interesting updates once a day or two, often including pictures from the project with stories behind them.

In retrospect what were your best assets for running this successful campaign? On the other hand, what would you do differently ?

By far the best asset has been the project itself. It’s turned out to have a much broader appeal than other things I’ve done. People seem to want the book. Kickstarter figured this out—they’ve promoted it a lot. The more people they put in front of, the more people pledge. So Kickstarter’s promotion machine was the other important asset. In the beginning about half my pledges were generated from Kickstarter’s promotions. A week into the campaign it’s more like 80%.

The press is another asset that I hope to benefit from soon. There are stories about the project coming out in local blogs, Architect Magazine, Brooklyn Magazine, and at least one UK Newspaper. I’m hoping those each give the project a bump.

What was your biggest challenge during your campaign?

I’m not sure yet … it’s still in progress.

What’s the most valuable advice you could share with aspiring crowdfunders?

Use Kickstarter, take advantage of all their resources, and err on the low side with your target. Beyond that, just do your research. There’s a ton of helpful information now on what works and what doesn’t.

And obviously, have a compelling project. I have many art projects that I care about deeply, but when I look hard at them, I don’t see the kind of broad appeal that can make a campaign take off. Sweet Ruin is the first one that felt right for this.

This post is part of a series! For more interviews and summary posts, check out the Crowdfunding Crash Course page.

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Twitter for Beginners (Extra Credit): Delving deeper into Twitter Analytics

August 10, 2015

Since I wrapped up my Twitter for Beginners series I've had a handful of people email or or @mention me asking questions about Twitter Analytics.

We discussed the importance of analytics a bit in Part 3, but I thought that since it's come up a few times since, we could do a little 'extra credit' session and share a little more in-depth insight into how to read your analytics and make the most of the data!

What you're looking at

Before we delve too much into this post, let's take a second to go over some of the phrases we'll be discussing, and what they actually mean.

• Engagement: The total number of times someone interacted with your tweet (more on this in a few moments)
• Engagement rate: Number of engagements divided by impressions
• Impressions: Times someone saw your tweet in their timeline or search results
• Link clicks: Clicks on a URL or Card in the tweet
• Permalink clicks: Clicks on the tweet permalink
• User profile clicks: Clicks on your name, @handle, or profile photo
• Detail expands: Clicks on the tweet to view more details
• Embedded media clicks: Clicks to view a photo or video in the tweet
• Follows: Whenever you gained a new follower as the result of a tweet

Got it? Good. Let's go!

Get monthly reports

If you check out your account home you can see a quick overview of your Twitter stats. This page shows stuff like monthly average engagement rates, replies, profile visits, etc.

This is pretty standard stuff, but can be really helpful at-a-glance and is great when you need to reference something in a meeting (I do this with my clients often.) It's especially helpful because Twitter will calculate the percentage of increased or decreased engagement, so you can start to dig into why a particular set of tweets earned more impressions, or not.

If you want a more detailed explanation you can check out the Tweets page which shows you much more in-depth metrics. Clicking on a tweet will show you engagement broken down further into ReTweets, Favourites, Clicks on Media, Link Clicks and more.

Measure engagement

One of my favourite features on the home page is the 'Engagements' section on the right-hand side, which breaks down your engagement rate into easy-to-read graphs, percentage points, and an 'on average' recap which gives you a basic idea of how your tweets are performing each day on average.

What does engagement measure? Tons of stuff! Such as:

• ReTweets
• Replies
• Follows
• Favorites
• Links
• Cards
• Hashtags
• Embedded media clicks
• Username clicks
• Profile photo clicks
• Tweet expansions

This is, in my experience, the easiest way to pull pertinent information from Twitter. I use it whenever I'm putting together a report for a client, or when I want to see how I'm doing - once you're used to looking at it I'm sure you'll be just as obsessed with it as I am!

Find out who your influencers are

When you're on the Home page you can get insight into who your top followers are every month in terms of reach, as well as whose @mention to you created the most engagement. You can also look at the Followers page for your Top Follower, which gives you insight into the kinds of people who are following your biggest influencer.

For example, my highest mention this week was from my hilarious pal Kieran, who tweeted this during the recent Canadian Federal Leader's Debate:

Who should you care? Understanding your top influencers helps you figure out the kinds of people who are active online (and who have active followers, themselves) and the types of people who are most actively engaging with and sharing your content. This type of information can also be helpful when trying to figure out someone to reach out to help you promote an project or collaborate together on an idea.

Get to know your community

If you're trying to grow your community in a specific direction the followers page is your new best friend! it's full of insight into people's top interests, their demographics, and how your followers have grown over time. This last bit of information is especially important if you publish original content regularly or participate in Twitter chats, because you can track what sorts of actions are the most effective at growing your community.

Here are a few key things to look for:

• Which topics your audience are most interested in
• Followers by region (ever have tweets that explode in popularity while you're asleep? This might be why)
• Which language they speak (mine's overwhelmingly English, which makes things easy)
• Who your followers follow (some competitive research never hurts)

See if your posts being re-shared or favourited

Whether or not a post gets Quoted or ReTweeted or Favourited tells a different kind of story about the tweet. Quoting and ReTweeting is generally a sign of value - someone felt that your content was valuable enough to share it with their audience, as well.

Favourites are like virtual fist-bumps: someone liked what you had to say and is giving you props by Favouriting your tweet.

Figure out your "Favourited Rate"

I first read about the "Favourited" Rate theory over on Dave Shure of Evolving SEO's blog, and it totally changed the way that I thought about Favourites. I frequently hear people bemoan the fact that people "just favourite" a post instead of Quoting or ReTweeting it, but favourites can be just as insightful if you approach them this way:

Your followers are going to click 'favourite' for a bunch of reasons, but most likely they're expressing agreement with whatever you said in your tweet. If you track the types of posts that get the most Favourites, you can often find trends emerging which can help guide your decisions when trying to figure out the kind of content to share. This is a huge boon because your audience is directly (if not unintentionally) showing you the kind of content that they like best.

Your turn!

These are just a few of the way that Twitter Analytics can help you figure out how to make the most of your tweets and grow your audience. Go, check out what we've covered here today, and and if you'd like me to cover it drop me a line and I'll get cracking on the next Extra Credit instalment!

PS if we're not already pals on Twitter, make sure to follow me and connect with me there. I love chatting with my readers!

This post is part of the three part series on Twitter for Beginners. Make sure to read part one, part two, and part three as well! The entire series can be found here.

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How to deal with "Impostor Syndrome"

August 6, 2015

I'm a fraud and eventually everyone is going to figure it out.

Do you ever feel that way? I do. I've felt that way a lot in the last year since I started really putting effort into my business. I frequently feel like one day everyone is just going to open their eyes, rub the sleep out of them and say oh hey you're actually just a giant impostor! and then chase me out of town.

This feeling -which isn't uncommon, by the way - people from Tina Fey to Neil Gaiman and Seth Godin have discussed their struggles with it- is characterized by behaviours like:

• Acting dismissing when praised
• Putting peers up on a pedestal
• Feeling reluctant about accepting new responsibilities or challenges
• Fear of failure
• Worrying that others will "discover" their shortcomings and condemn them for it

“The first problem of any kind of even limited success is the unshakable conviction that you are getting away with something, and that any moment now they will discover you. It’s Impostor Syndrome, something my wife Amanda christened the Fraud Police.” – Neil Gaiman

While I think that this feeling has always persisted in some people (maybe all of us, who knows?) it seems to be that much more pronounced now that we have to project airs of confidence and sell ourselves not just in person, but online as well.

There's a pressure to sell yourself and your abilities, while also remaining "authentic" (something I've talked about a lot.) We feel the pressure to be perfect, but we also have to be as open about our lives and our struggles as we can. We feel the need to be perfect, but we also have to be free to fail and to be open and transparent about those failures.

Trying to walk this tightrope can feel exhausting, and it practically sets you up to feel like a fraud.

As someone who also deals with anxiety on a regular basis (super awesome!... not) this can compound feelings of fakery and throw a huge wrench in my productivity, confidence, and my overall quality of life.

Here's how I deal (and how you can, too!)

Accept that you played a role in your successes. The good things in your life didn't just fall into your lap, you know. You hustled your ass for what you have; you said yes when you could have said no; you took that challenge. You get my drift.

Focus on the value you provide. The fastest way to get over fraudulent feelings is to help people and share what you know (hence this post.) This can be hard because there are so many what-ifs: what if people hate what you have to say? What if they make fun of you? etc etc.... the trick is just to write what you know.

Know that you're going to die. I think about death every day. Not in a morbid sense, but I try to take time to remember that I'm only here for a very short time, and I don't want to spend my limited time in this world giving in to feelings that make me feel bad about myself.

Stop comparing yourself to people. That person, especially. You know the one: the person who's where you want to be, who's written more, shared more, built a bigger business, whatever. Emerson said, “Envy is ignorance…” and he was totally correct. We're inundated with photos, tweets, Vines, etc showing off people's awesome lives, but we never see their struggles. Take those people down off their pedestals in your mind and focus on how you can bring yourself up.

Remember that being wrong or making a mistake doesn't make you an impostor. World leaders make mistakes all the time, Tiger Woods doesn't play every game perfectly, Brad Pitt flubs his lines sometimes... you get my drift. People make mistakes every single day. It's okay that you did, too.

Realize that nobody knows what they're doing. Nobody knows exactly what they're doing, even though there are lots of people out there who will insist otherwise (these people are lying to you.) We live in a world where we have to muck through the mud to get to there we want to be -you, me and everyone else.

Fake it till you make it. Ugh! So clichéd! But it's true. Just like how smiling tricks your brain into feeling happier, putting yourself out there and simply acting like you're 100% confident will start to translate into reality. Neuroplasticity is a wonderful thing, and it means that you can shape your brain by pretending to be what you want to be.

Do you ever feel like an impostor? What steps have you taken to overcome these feelings? Tell me in the comments (or shoot me an email if it's too personal)

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Going Solo: Reflections on 31 days of running my business full-time

August 4, 2015

Last Saturday, on August 1st, I passed an important personal milestone:

I'd spent 31 days (a whole month) running my own business full-time.

While this might seem insignificant to some people, it's a really big deal for me. As I've said many times on this blog, I never thought I'd be the kind of person who could run their own business. I was raised with the the mantra of "get a job, stay there, keep your head down and work there until you retire," and the idea of working for myself and being the only person in charge of my own future was really, really scary.

So when I sat down at my desk on my first day of work I felt this huge rush of exhilaration: okay, I'm here. I'm actually doing this... holy shit I'm actually doing this.

(I haven't really lost that feeling, yet.)

The last month has been a whirlwind of activity. Meetings, emails, and more work than I'd imagined. Whoever said that running your own business was easy is lying to you. I don't really know what I expected when I started this adventure, but I wanted to share a few things that have stood out to me over the past several weeks because while some of them were totally expected, others really caught me by surprise.

Here's how things have gone:

My productivity has skyrocketed

Even though this is my first month running my business full-time, I've actually been running it since June of 2014, taking on contracts in addition to my 9-5. This meant that for over a year I was going and working at my desk job (which wasn't terribly rewarding, and sapped a lot of my creative energy) and then working on client stuff in the evenings.

Spoiler alert: this can be exhausting. There were days where I would literally be working from 9am to 1am the following morning, then getting up to go to work and do it again the next night. It sucked.

Sure, there are days when I'm less productive, those happen to everyone, but overall I can churn out significantly more content for myself and my clients now that my time is 100% committed to doing so. I'm not as tired, I'm not as worn-out, and I actually do what I love to do, which is the largest motivating factor.

Additionally, I think that we pick up a lot of bad habits when we work for someone else. There's a lot of "looking busy" or "killing time" that happens at a traditional office job that simply isn't an option when you work for yourself. I'm the only person in charge of my own time, and I have to be accountable to myself.

On that note...

Taking ownership of my own time has been weird

A few weeks ago I had lunch with Dave Shorr and he said "I do all my grocery shopping on Tuesday mornings. Everyone is at work, and I do in 20 minutes what would take me two hours after work. Then I go home and work all day."

I remember being surprised by how casually he brought this up, but now that I've been in the groove of things for a few weeks I totally see his point: understanding how you can "hack" your schedule to make the most of your time can make a huge difference in your productivity levels.

When we work in a traditional office-type setting our time is never really our own. There's always a boss to report to, someone breathing down your neck who is judging how you spend your time "on the clock," and the possibility that you might be reprimanded for not using it in a way that they feel is acceptable.

Owning my time has been the biggest challenge for me this month. When you grow up learning that someone else is in charge of your time, it can be really weird to take ownership of it and use it in the best way possible.

This isn't to say that I'm less accountable than I used to be - in fact, I have more "bosses" today than I did a month ago -but what's different is that (by and large) clients don't care when you do your work, they just care that it gets done. When you do it is up to you.

My to-do list is my best friend

This was John's big piece of advice for me: every day, or once a week, sit down and write out the things that you need to get done. Check them off when you're finished, and cross the whole page off when it's complete!

Every Monday morning I sit down at my desk and write out my to-do list for the week. I include meetings, emails that need to be dealt with, content that needs to be scheduled, etc. I do this for my client work, but I also include a section of my own personal business development goals as well. Am I meeting someone for lunch? In the checklist. Am I planning to reach out to someone? In the checklist it goes!

Having a concrete reminder of what I need to do helps me stay focused and organized, which is a huge boon because working for (and by) yourself can often feel scattered, and it's very easy to get distracted. Having a physical list to go back to and revisit helps me give a sense of order to my days.

Additionally, my to-do list is ever-evolving. I'm not (and will never be) one of those "inbox zero" kinds of people - I'm constantly adding to it, revising, re-thinking, and trying to figure out ways that I can be more productive in less time.

There's no shame in asking for help

I wouldn't be able to do what I'm doing without the advice and insight that I've been able to glean from a ton of people: John (obviously), Les, Kyla, Andrea, Jodi, Louie - these are all people who have taken the time to talk to me and give me advice on how to run my business, be efficient, reach out to people, you name it.

I grew up being afraid to ask for help. I felt shame in not-knowing, and actually botched a job opportunity in the past because I was too afraid to speak up and say "hey, I need some guidance over here." I let my own pride and guilt get in the way of being successful, and that's something that I've had to quickly learn to get over. No more being afraid of not-knowing. Period!

I can do whatever the hell I want to do

I didn't want the tone of this post to get too self help-y or preachy, but I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that every. single. day. this month has been like a slap in the face, reminding me "you can do it if you try."

I mentioned my upbringing at the beginning of this post, and I don't think that I'm the only one who grew up learning this mentality. Our society teaches us that we need to "play it safe" (whatever that means) and that depending on someone else for our paycheque (and in many cases our sense of self-worth) is safer than depending on ourselves to find the value in our work.

We're taught that it's "too hard" and "too challenging" and that people who try are "so brave" (or, if the person you're talking to is a jerk, "so stupid") for putting themselves out there and giving it a shot; as though being in business for yourself is this unattainable pedestal that only the super-driven or super-lucky can attain.

This past month has taught me that those statements are utter bullshit.

There are always going to be creeps in your life who don't want you to challenge yourself; maybe it's your conservative family, maybe it's a naysaying friend, maybe it's a boss who made you feel like dirt every day (I've dealt with all of those). It doesn't matter. If you want to do it, then go for it.

And if you don't know where to start, shoot me a message. I'm always down to chat.

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You're invited to #SocialHour, a monthly Twitter chat about community building & engagement

July 31, 2015

Hello everyone!

I'm excited to announce that starting August 11, 2015 I'll be hosting a monthly Twitter Chat called #SocialHour. On the 2nd Tuesday each month we'll have a chance to come together and discuss ideas, challenges, and strategies for growing your audience and increasing engagement on your blog and social media feeds.

As you know, I'm a big believer in knowledge sharing, and I can't think of a better way for us all to learn and grow together than to make a time to have a chat each month about our challenges, our goals and how we plan to kick some ass that month.

Finding and growing your community can feel overwhelming by yourself, so let's do it together!

How can you join us?

Joining the conversation is easy, all you need is a Twitter account!

Once you're logged in you can follow the discussion by doing a Twitter search for the hashtag #SocialHour. If you get lost just hit up my Twitter account to find the hashtag link again and you'll be right back in the mix.

I'll prepare a handful of questions each month to get the wheels in your head turning and the conversation started, and we'll spent the next hour or so sharing our responses with each other and collaborating together.

I'll be posting questions with Q1, Q2, etc at the beginning, so you can easily keep track of what we're discussing. When you respond, simply add the corresponding number to your answer like so:

A2 My favourite cupcake is red velvet with cream cheese frosting #SocialHour

(great, now I want a cupcake - but you get the drift!)

But don't just reply to my questions, be sure to check out what other people are saying and reply to them as well! I'll also be retweeting some of my favourite contributions, and will help guide the conversation by engaging with everyone as we chat.

Sounds great! What now?

Remember to mark your calendars for August 11th at 1pm CT to join us. I'll be sending out a reminder the day before to my newsletter subscribers, so make sure to sign up so you don't miss out!

I can't wait to start this new project with all of you, and am looking forward to getting to know all of you and helping you find and grow kickass, engaged communities!

xox

Alyson

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Crowdfunding Crash Course: Jeffrey Martin - Sphericam

July 30, 2015

Jeffrey Martin is a photographer of 360, Gigapixel, and Panoramic photos. He used Kickstarter to successfully fund the his product the Sphericam, a 360º video camera.

Can you briefly describe Sphericam?

Sphericam is the world’s only fully spherical, 360º video camera. It records in 4K, has no blind spots, and can be played back on VR headsets like the Oculus and GearVR, as well as your PC or on your iPad.or VR headset. Jeffrey Martin is a photographer of 360, Gigapixel, and Panoramic photos. He used Kickstarter to successfully fund the his product the Sphericam, a 360º video camera.

Why did you feel that the crowdfunding model was the best way to promote the product

Crowdfunding is a great way to market products that are new to the market, or are still in prototype stages. It’s a great way to raise awareness of your product before it goes to market.

Why and how did you choose Kickstarter over other crowdfunding options available?

Kickstarter has the biggest footprint in the world of crowdfunding, and has a huge community of active members who are always searching the site for new products and ideas to back. Plus the site itself does a great job of marketing and promoting the campaigns.

How big was your budget before you launched your crowdfunding campaign?

Somewhere between $15,000 and $20,000 I’d say. This amount went towards the important stuff that makes a good campaign stand out; namely the video, marketing material and ad purchases, the copywriting for the Kickstarter and website pages, and the creation of the website itself.

How far along was your project before you felt ready to launch a crowdfunding campaign? In hindsight, would you have preferred to be farther along, or to have crowdfunded earlier?

I knew that I needed to have the camera pretty much ready before I launched the campaign, more or less at the complete prototype stage. It needed to be able to take pictures at a high enough quality that I could show people what it was going to look like.

This made my campaign different from other types of campaigns: a lot of campaigns can launch without a prototype-ready product that can be developed after the campaign is completed. A camera is different, though, you need to be able to show people exactly what they’re getting, which you can only do by providing images from the actual camera.

Can you explain how you prepared for and managed your campaign?

I had a lot of media contacts from my days as a photographer, so I made a point to reach out to them and make them aware that I was launching my campaign. I also hired a PR company to handle tasks like pitching journalists and news organizations.

I handled all of the email questions and inquiries, though, which was a huge task. While I guess I could have had someone answer them for me, I think that when you’re a small company just starting out people need to be in direct contact with the founders throughout the campaign. Once you’re a company of 10-15 people, then it’s okay to assign a task like that to someone else, but in the beginning your backers and other people with inquiries need to be hearing from you, the founder.

What tools did you use to market your campaign? Do you feel like you did so successfully, and if not, what could you have done differently?

We ran some Facebook ads which were successful, but we didn’t really scale them up because there wasn’t a lot of margin left over. Kickstarter took theirs and we needed to pay the PR company, so we weren’t able to scale up throughout the length of the campaign.

Overall I feel like we did a good job of promoting our campaign, though I wish we’d had a little more top-level press from sites like the New York Times, but… I guess everyone wishes that sort of thing, so that’s okay.

In retrospect what were your best assets for running this successful campaign? On the other hand, what would you do differently?

I feel that the best asset for our campaign was the production value. It’s the most important part of any campaign, in my opinion, because people are going to judge the quality of your product and your idea based on what they see and hear. By hiring a great copywriter and making a great video we were able to instill confidence in our potential backers.

If I could do anything differently I would have tried to generate a bit more buzz about the campaign before it started, though that’s a slippery slope because you don’t want to exhaust all of your promotional options before the campaign even starts or you won’t be able to keep up momentum and interest for very long. So, I guess it’s better to err on the side of secrecy a little bit, at least before you’re fully ready to go.

What was your biggest challenge during your campaign?

Staying sane! Running our Kickstarter was the most relentless 32 days I’ve ever had. It’s totally non stop, and if you do take a day off -which you can, if you plan- you’ll have so much catching up to do the next day that it might not even seem worth it.

What’s the most valuable advice you could share with aspiring crowdfunders?

Be honest with yourself about what you’re not good at and find people who can help you accomplish those tasks. If you’re no good at understanding analytics for ads, copywriting, budgeting, whatever, it’s better to admit that to yourself and to ask for help, rather than struggle through it and potentially waste your own time.

For example, I could have written some copy for the Kickstarter page and the website but I would have really struggled with it, so I decided to pay someone to do it for me, and they did it the right way. You need to learn to delegate tasks, and to be part of a growing team as things progress.

This post is part of a series! For more interviews and summary posts, check out the Crowdfunding Crash Course page.

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How to Go From Novice to Pro: Actionables to Make Your Blog Better

July 28, 2015

We live in a world where content is king - the more quality, share-able stuff you publish on your blog increases the likelihood that people will find you and keep coming back.

While this is all well and good, all the great content in the world can't overcome a layout that is difficult to navigate, or physically hurts to look at.

Whether you're brand-new to blogging or feel like it's time to update your blog layout to reflect the savvy, experienced blogger that you are, I've got you covered with some easy actionables to take your blog from "meh" to "yeah!"

Clean up your layout

Remember the days of the early internet, back before we really thought about things like user experience and a clean, functional layout? If you don't, check out the Wayback Machine which is a handy little archive of what websites used to look like.

By and large they all sucked.

In fact, even my old layout kinda sucked. Let's take a look:

Ouch, right? Abrasive colours, no real flow, no real navigation... a very basic and (let's face it) pretty immature-looking site. Nobody visiting this website would have taken me for a professional creative-type.

This is because an abrasive, clunky-looking site demonstrates that you're not really serious about what you do; it immediately tells visitors to your blog you haven't put the time, energy and effort into making it represent you in the best way possible.

Not just that, but it shows that you aren't taking your visitor's experience into consideration, either - people won't stay on a site that's hard to read, especially a blog.

So what can you do? Here are a few steps that you can take to clean up your layout:

• Stick to the basics. Darker text in a white or off-white background is easy to read and isn't painful to look at.
• Don't go font-crazy. Find a header font and a regular text font and stick to them. Google Fonts has some great free resources (thats's where both of mine, Dancing Script and Oxygen, come from)
• Rethink your layout. Visit your favourite blogs and make a list of the things that you like about them - what colours do they use? What sorts of layouts do they have?
• Need inspiration? Moodboard it out! I used Niice to create a mood board with design and style inspirations which helped guide my website re-design. You can check the one that I created here.

Get professional photos taken

Having nice, professional photos can make all the difference in how seriously people will take you and your blog. Selfies have their place, but that place shouldn't be on your sidebar or bio page!

I've always loved Gala Darling's amazing photos; they really showcase her personalty and look stunning. You don't have to go high-fashion (or even pay through the nose for a professional session) though, just a decent camera and some good lighting makes all the difference!

Shop around and see what local photographers are charging for portrait sessions; it might seem like a steep investment up-front but I guarantee you that having some beautiful, professional-level photos will not only make your blog look better, but you'll feel better about sending people to check it out.

(Shameless plug: my photos are via the super-talented Palma Photography. If you're in Winnipeg or the surrounding area I highly recommend working with him.)

Review brands & experiences you love

Many big-time bloggers do "sponsored" posts where a brand sends them a product, invites them to an event, or provides them with a free experience in exchange for coverage on their blog.

If you're just starting out this might seem daunting - how do you let brands know that you're ready, willing and able to start working with them? Easy: Write up a post reviewing a product or experience that you had and show them what you can do!

I don't mean lie about being sponsored by a brand, but rather simply write a review with some nice images or graphics (preferably ones that you made yourself, you clever thing.)

A great recent post in style that I recommend checking out is Sarah from Sunshine & Mint, who recently blogged about her natural skincare routine, and reviewed the products that she uses on a regular basis. It's that easy!

Additionally, make sure to link to any brands you mention in your post, and in any posts you create on social media! This means linking to their Facebook page in your Facebook post, @mentioning them on Twitter, etc. This dramatically increases the likelihood that the right people will not only see your post, but will want to work with you in the future. At the very least, an astute social media manager will share your post with that brand's audience, which will bring more people to your blog.

Include links to recent posts/projects

Whether someone is visiting your blog for the first time or is a longtime reader, making sure that they can easily find links to your other work is a great way to show off your content and increase engagement.

If you're a blogger with lots of projects, helpful content, or multiple-post series, consider creating a 'projects' page like I have, or link to the in your sidebar to help people find them (Ashley of A Silver Twig does a great job of this on her sidebar, in case you're looking for examples)

Other helpful stuff your blog should include is:

• Recent Posts section with links to your most recent content
• Older Posts or Archives section or list. I keep mine on my sidebar and it's organized by month, but lots of other bloggers like Tony Pierce put theirs at the bottom of their page.
• Projects or similarly-named page for longer, more in-depth projects. This serves as a place where readers can easily find and navigate around related posts.
• Footers linking to other related work, eg: "this post is part of a series, click here to see more!"

Make your social media links easy to find

Prominently displayed social media links encourage readers to interact with you across multiple social platforms - if they like your blog they're likely to start following you on Twitter, connecting with you on Pinterest, or wherever you may be.

Additionally, showcasing the multitude of ways that you're connected online also demonstrates how social media-savvy you are. Just make sure that you're linking to active profiles! Nobody wants to engage with a dead and forgotten profile.

Bonus: If your site layout allows for it, RebelMouse is a great widget which will pull all of your content from a social media feed (mine pulls my Twitter & Tumblr) and show it on a single page. I snagged this idea from blogger superstar Casie Stewart, who uses it as the landing page on her personal website, and I love how it looks.

Include a copyright in your footer

Even though you have a built-in copyright on original material that you publish online, a little copyright at the bottom of your page is a handy reminder that the content on your site is yours, and helps add a more professional feel to your content.

Include calls to action

An easy way to help people find your other posts, subscribe to your newsletter, or interact with your post is to include calls to action throughout your blog.

For example, there's a call to action at the bottom of my posts which looks like this:

I've written about the importance of newsletters in a previous post, but let me just say this: newsletters are one of the most powerful tools that you have to communicate with your audience.

This is because when people sign up for your newsletter they are saying "yes, I confirm that I want to hear from you on a regular basis!" and are granting you permission to send your content directly to their inbox. No worrying about social media algorithms, sites getting shut down, etc. You always have a way to communicate directly with your audience.

You can also include calls to action in the body of your posts by ending a post with a question, or series of questions meant to engage your reader and encourage comments. By asking questions or actively asking for suggestions, you show your readers that you want to interact with them and increase the likelihood that they'll comment, share or subscribe.

Share what you know (be a thought leader)

I love that quote from powerhouse (and one of my personal heroes) Penelope Trunk.

Blogging is about having something to say, and saying it well.

Don't just share what you know, share why you feel it's important knowledge. Be descriptive, be creative, and be daring. Think about the things that matter to you as a person, as a business owner, as a creative, whatever, and get writing about it.

Have you been building your business from the ground up? Blog about that. Do you have keen insight into B2B marketing? Blog about that. Have you built a mini internet empire painting watercolours of sloths? Blog about that!

Put yourself out there and show your audience who you really are - that's what will keep them coming back, after all.

Do you have any additional tips for making your blog better? Any horror stories of blog layouts past? I'd love to hear them!

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Crowdfunding Crash Course: Guillaume Rolland - SensorWake

July 23, 2015

Guillaume Rolland is an 18-year old entrepreneur from Paris, France. He is the creator of SensorWake, an olfactory-based alarm clock which wakes you up through the power of smell. He used Kickstarter to successfully fund his project.

Can you briefly talk about SensorWake?

SensorWake is an olfactory alarm-clock. It can wake you up only thanks your favourite scent (hot croissant, peppermint, coffee and even the smell of a dollar!)

Why did you feel that the crowdfunding model was the best way to promote the product?

It’s the perfect worldwide showcase to promote your device or idea.

Why and how did you choose Kickstarter over other crowdfunding options available?

Kickstarter is developing the most powerful community; it is multicultural, curious, and respectful about your project.

How big was your budget before you launched your crowdfunding campaign?

We have to create a great video and great images of our product. We don’t communicate about it but we started with less than 10.000€

How far along was your project before you felt ready to launch a crowdfunding campaign? In hindsight, would you have preferred to be farther along, or to have crowdfunded earlier?

You have to begin the preparation about 4-5 months before.

Can you explain how you prepared for and managed your campaign?

We built a strong team and made sure everyone had strong, unique, and different qualities to be ready for all the challenges we expected.

What tools did you use to market your campaign? Do you feel like you did so successfully, and if not, what could you have done differently?

Facebook Ads are a really great key to market the campaign when it’s live. You also have to showcase your product at a real event. For example we attended the Hello Tomorrow Start-Up Village in June; it’s just the perfect way to demonstrate the real qualities of your product, and to meet your very first backers.

In retrospect what were your best assets for running this successful campaign? On the other hand, what would you do differently?

One of our best assets was that we had a strong community before the launch. We more than 7,500 fans on Facebook before the campaign launch, who were our very first ambassadors who promoted our project.

What was your biggest challenge during your campaign?

Our best challenge is to keep in touch with our backers, we have to be close with them but not spend too much time responding to every email or comment.

What’s the most valuable advice you could share with aspiring crowdfunders?

Take your time before launching, develop a strong community and create the perfect crowdfunding page, do not forget that video is 50% of your campaign success.

This post is part of the Crowdfunding Crash Course series. You can find the full list of interviews and summaries here.

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Before & After Blogging: A Handy Post Checklist

July 20, 2015

When I first started blogging (way back around 2003) things were easy. You wrote your post, hit 'publish' and other people's RSS feeds took care of the rest.

Nowadays things aren't so simple. Bloggers need to worry about things like search engine optimization, keyword inclusion, social media promotion, image design... the list goes on!

If you're new to blogging the amount of steps needed to make sure your post gets the attention that it deserves can seem really daunting, and even for a veteran blogger like me when things get crazy-busy it can be a challenge to make sure I'm taking all the necessary steps to promote my latest post.

With that in mind, I've put together a handy little resource for you (and me!) to use.

The Before & After Blogging Checklist is a simple little tool which helps keep track of the things to do before and after a post goes live. This helps me stay organized and on-track, and hopefully it will help you do the same!

You can view it here, or download it below for easy everyday use!

Want to keep a copy for yourself? Download it here:

Blog Post Checklist.pdf

Enjoy!

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Crowdfunding Crash Course: Tomas Ericsson - Axess Front Wallets

July 15, 2015

Tomas Ericsson is the founder of Axess Front Wallets, a unique leather wallet designed to fit comfortably in your front pocket.

Can you briefly talk about Axess Front Wallets?

Axess came as a response to the fact that I couldn’t find a great front pocket wallet on the market. I started experiencing back pain when sitting on my bulky wallet two summers ago and that sparked the idea that eventually became Axess Front Wallets.

Why did you feel that the crowdfunding model was the best way to promote the product?

To be frank, it was due to the financial realities of the project; the materials are super expensive with a high minimum order quantity so I couldn’t go ahead with Axess without the Kickstarter. Kickstarter is also a great marketing platform with exposure to some 30 million monthly visitors, in addition to giving you those crucial early backers. It’s absolutely great, thanks Kickstarter! :)

Why and how did you choose Kickstarter over other crowdfunding options available?

I was actually going to go with Indiegogo when I started planning Axess, but then Kickstarter allowed Swedes to launch projects back in October last year, so it became a no-brainer; the Kickstarter platform, due to its limited allowed countries, and higher bar is a much more powerful crowdfunding platform. There’s more trust in a Kickstarter than in the alternatives, and they have much more traffic and paying customers.

How big was your budget before you launched your crowdfunding campaign?

I have spent quite a lot developing my product, but the marketing budget is just around $1,000 usd.

How far along was your project before you felt ready to launch a crowdfunding campaign? In hindsight, would you have preferred to be farther along, or to have crowdfunded earlier?

I was very far along, I had developed 18 unique models, and I had several great blog mentions and over 400 early subscribers on my landing page. I think I launched in just the right moment.

Can you explain how you prepared for and managed your campaign?

I had a landing page which I promoted on Reddit and then later on via getting featured in big fashion blogs, and I gathered 400+ emails in a couple of months. I created Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts and let everybody I knew know that something was stirring north of the wall!

What tools did you use to market your campaign? Do you feel like you did so successfully, and if not, what could you have done differently?

I used Unbounce to build a landing page which works really well (albeit being a bit pricy). I got help from a consultant from P&G I met accidentally on Reddit /r/advancedentrepeneur who actually built the landing page for free. For my Reddit promos I used an Imgur account, that’s a must. My biggest mistake was to not include social sharing buttons anywhere on my landing page

In retrospect what were your best assets for running this successful campaign? On the other hand, what would you do differently?

My own promotions on reddit and via email to blogs was the key, just straight forward emails to people, my own simple promotions were the biggest asset, (as well as the P&G consultant who built my landing page)

What was your biggest challenge during your campaign?

Taking all the product photos and making all the GIF-animations without breaking my back. (Gin and the Joe Rogan podcasts helps a lot during long photo days in the home studio),

What’s the most valuable advice you could share with aspiring crowdfunders?

Try not to take any shortcuts when developing the product or service, try to find an opening in the market (don’t attack something head on, go for a smaller piece of a more specialized part of the market). Read business literature, I recommend all of Al Ries books and Jim Collins books, those really put me in the right direction.

This post is part of the #CrowdfundingCrashCourse series. You can find the entire series of interviews and summary posts here.

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